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Withdrawal symptoms worsen the stronger the drug and the longer the period of abuse. So it isn't surprising that the mere idea of a reduced dose in our monetary medicine -- which has already injected $12 trillion into global economies, and held half the world's government bonds to yields below 1% -- should spur a selloff encompassing stocks, bonds, and commodities across the globe.

Yet painful hangovers are a necessary step toward recovery and normalcy. And not just the new normal, where assets are conditioned to jump, like Pavlov's dogs, at the merest whiff of central-bank aid, but the older normal where results drive performance. What might that hold for each asset class?

For a start, bond yields will rise over time. The Federal Reserve will repeat its pledge this week to keep buying bonds until our economy lifts off. Yet anticipation of Fed tapering has recently sent 10-year Treasury yields spiking to 14-month highs, and investors bracing for rising rates have just pulled $27 billion from bond funds in two weeks.

Interest rates won't go straight up, of course. Priya Misra, Bank of America Merrill Lynch's rates strategist, thinks a soft patch could send investors scurrying back to Treasuries, pushing the 10-year yield down to 2% in the third quarter, before it rebounds to end this year near 2.4%.

Still, an old rule of thumb suggests the benchmark yield should eventually track economic expansion. If the U.S. recovers enough to grow at a 3% pace, and the Fed manages to hold inflation to 2%, then the normalized level for the 10-year yield should approach 5%. "A lot of investors and pensions are going to be quite upset when they see annual returns in their fixed-income portfolios go to less than 1% -- below the 7% or 8% they've grown accustomed to," says Zane Brown, Lord Abbett's fixed-income strategist. If the yield on the Barclays Aggregate Index were to rise from 2.1% to 5.1% in the next five years, average annual returns would shrink below 0.75%. Brown's advice: Move down in duration and quality, since higher-yielding bonds tend to hold up better as rates rise.

Meanwhile, plummeting commodities and emerging markets are tempting bargain hunters. Money has flowed out of commodity funds for 18 straight weeks, the longest stretch ever. But commodities' woes may owe more to structural issues -- capacity built during the boom outstripped supply, and the slack can only worsen if global demand wanes.

Emerging markets with big current-account deficits that have run up fast during monetary easing—such as Indonesia, Turkey, and Mexico—are especially vulnerable, and some are correcting hard. "But with Fed tapering likely before China eases, the better trade may be to reduce exposure to bubbly emerging debt markets and correlated consumer stocks, and wait for China to ease or emerging-market capitulation to be completed," writes Michael Hartnett, BofA Merrill Lynch's chief investment strategist.

The latter may be near: Investors have just yanked $9 billion from emerging-market stock and debt funds, the biggest weekly redemption since early 2008. Fiercer selling might trigger a buy signal, at least in the short term.

Above all, U.S. stocks should hold up better than bonds. Even after falling in three of the past four weeks, the Standard & Poor's 500 is still up 14.1% this year, and just 2.5% off its peak. Fear and loathing of the Fed-induced rally means many investors remain under-invested, and stocks trade at 15.5 times what companies have earned, below a two-decade median of 17.3 times.

COMPANIES HAVE ALSO BOUGHT back $656 billion of shares in the past three years -- not chump change, considering the entire stock market was worth $1,008 billion in 1982, notes Ned Davis of Ned Davis Research. Despite that, cash holdings have ticked up over the past year, to about $1.78 trillion. "Corporations do have the funds to buy more stocks," Davis writes.

The much-vaunted rotation from bonds into stocks also has yet to begin. For much of 2013, billions have poured into both stock funds and bond funds -- a sign Americans aren't yet liquidating bonds to buy stocks. But firms are starting to boost their stock-trading platforms, and explore structured products. And stocks' five-year returns can only look up once the stain from the 2008 blood-letting is scrubbed from the books.

It remains to be seen if a second-half recovery will live up to the expectations of the levitated market. Will rising mortgage rates curb refinancings? Or will unexpected budget surpluses in states from California to Florida thaw the freeze in state spending?

Even if the rally stalls until results catch up, leadership could still shift from defensive to more economically sensitive stocks. After all, low rates intended to goose investment have had the opposite effect. "As income-starved investors are forced out of cash and bonds into higher-yielding equity markets, they increase pressure on companies to distribute rather than invest capital," wrote Citigroup's strategists in a recent report. The Fed may have forced money into the stock market, but it's "the wrong kind of capital -- income-seeking, not growth-seeking."

Normalizing bond yields will begin to wean us from our fixation with dividends and buybacks, and fix our addiction to equity income. It might even encourage companies to invest anew in expansion.